Adam & Eve – Light from the Word

The Tree that Changed the Destiny of Mankind

The serpent in that perfect garden of Eden served as an instrument for Satan to fulfill his plan against God’s creation in his fallen state. Obviously, he hated men, whom God created as His image and wanted them condemned to hell. Eve became his target and was deceived by the serpent which was crafty and she was prone to listen to the devil. A battle for men was happening at that time, and Eve made it easy, for not perceiving the reality. Was she aware of whom Satan was and his enmity against God since they did not have the understanding of good and evil, with the exception of not “to eat from the tree in the middle of the garden.” Obviously, Satan hid himself behind the voice of the serpent to deceive Eve and bring them to condemnation of the curse. The battle raged on and he won. The beautiful garden, pure and perfect, where there was the presence of God was painted black; its shinning disappeared in the waves of sin; men’ destiny shifted to Satan’s control. So, it was that the earth bent to him lost its beauty, peace, and love. Now, violence, hatred, homicide and everything evil took the form of the curse.

The tree of the knowledge of good and evil and blessing and calamity was not to be eaten from (Gen. 2:17a). That command sealed God’s agreement with men. Obviously, Adam was the recipient of that command, for Eve to fall for the serpent’s idea without defending God’s command. When the prohibited fruit was yanked from the tree it felt the pain, as If it knew what was happening to the human race from eating that prohibited fruit whose message carried consequence to all who ate it for generations to come. When Eve listened to the serpent’s voice, disregarding God’s voice, she lost her relationship with Him, for she had believed the serpent’s words, doubting God’s word and breaking the agreement with Him to obey. As a result, she brought down the entire world with her, including her husband.

The tree was disregarded and dishonored by Eve. So, God sent Adam out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken. So, “He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim with the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life” (Genesis 3:22-24). In this, we see nature changing, as well as the ground being cursed. Life was left marked by sin and a curse. Men multiplied, so did their iniquity, while nature of all kinds suffered the consequences of their evil acts. “How long must the land mourn and the grass and herbs of the whole country wither? Through the wickedness of those who dwell in it, the beasts and the birds are consumed and are swept away… “says Jeremiah “because the ground is cracked and the tillers are dismayed, since there has been no rain on the land, the plowmen are put to shame, and they cover their heads. Yes, even the hind gives birth to her calf in the field and forsakes it, because there is no grass or herbage and the wild donkeys stand on the bare heights; their pant for air like jackals or crocodiles; their eyesight fails because there is no grass. O Lord though our iniquities testify against us, deal and work with us for Your own sake! For our backslidings are many; we have sinned against You” (Jer. 12:4; 14: 4-7). In Romans 8:19-23 Paul says: “For the creation waits expectantly and longs earnestly for God’s sons to be made known, for the creation was subjected to frailty, not because of some intentional fault on its part, but by the will of Him Who so subjected it with the hope that nature itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and corruption into the glorious freedom of God’s children . We know that the whole creation has been moaning together in the pains of labor until now, and no only creation, but we ourselves too…” (Rom. 8:19-23a).

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Eve and the Prohibited Fruit

No one knows what kind of fruit-tree was in the garden which Satan tempted Eve with. We know however, that it was a special tree, the tree whose fruit opened the eyes of Adam and Eve to know the difference between good and evil. The Bible only mentions it to be “The fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden.” Satan, the father of lies, presented the temptation to Eve by means of a question doubting God’s command: Can it really be that God has said, You shall not eat from every tree of the garden? Eve, then corrected the devil saying, We may eat the fruit from the trees of the garden, except the fruit from the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, You shall not eat of it lest you die was Eve’s answer (Gen. 3:1-3). This dialog resulted in the fall of mankind. It changed everything that man represented at his creation. Had Eve walked away, perhaps sin would not have entered into the world or into the soul of man, for when Eve and Adam ate the prohibited fruit, they lost the image of God and received the image of sin and their DNA was corrupted. The sin of rebellion shown through their disobedience penetrated into their DNA and into their soul, carrying to all generations after them. This is the reason why we became sinners and our tendency is to fall into sin. Man’s soul is directedly connected with its sinful nature. The mind, the will and the emotion are vehicles to cause the body to sin. Temptation started in the level of the soul. Our thoughts, our desires and emotions are all connected to perform evil. Sin is manifested through the flesh. It expresses anger in a hurtful and physical way, when one is angry; it expresses vengeance when one is emotionally hurt; when the mind of man is evil, it expresses corruption in the form of sexual perversion and other means. Without the renewal of the soul, we are lost and condemned to perish forever.

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Of Many Such Matters He Is Reminded

(Job 23: 10,14)

Although I walk through the valley of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me (Ps. 23:4). In life’s challenges there is the thought that we are in that situation alone. Everyone around us seem to be indifferent to our cry for help; our voice seemly muffled by their indifference. We pray, but help does not come fast enough for us. To the contrary, we feel that we were not heard, and life goes on in that mode for as long as our trouble lingers. Like Job, we cry, Oh, that I knew where I might find Him, that I might come even to His seat! I would lay my cause before Him and fill my mouth with arguments; I would learn what He would answer me, and understand what He would say to me (Job 23:3-5). In the pages of Psalm 139: 13,15-16 we have a beautiful, significant and trustworthy statement from the Lord to us through David, to assure us of His involvement in our life from the beginning, when He was forming us in the womb of our mother: For You did form my inward parts; You did knit me together in my mother’s womb. I will confess and praise You for You are fearful and wonderful and for the awful wonder of my birth! Wonderful are your works, and that my inner knows well. My frame was not hidden from You when I was being formed in secret intricately and curiously wrought in the depths of the earth; Your eyes saw my unformed substance, and in Your book all the days [of my life] were written before ever they took shape, when as yet there was none of them.

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The Middle Man

And Israel said to Moses, you speak to us and we will listen, but let not God speak to us, lest we die… And the people stood afar off, but Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was (Exodus 20:18-24).

When Adam and Eve sinned, they hid themselves from the presence of God, at the sound of His voice while walking through the garden (Gen.3:8). A routine of the day when God would come to commune with them in the cool of the day, became a fearful experience. Peace was replaced by fear and guilt, when they made the decision to believe the serpent, instead. Sin had taken them away from the presence of God and robbed them of their relationship with Him. No longer could they feel comfortable in the presence of the holy God. What was so important to them, they lost in the decision they had made. Now, instead of welcoming God in their midst, they hid from Him as if to tell Him, leave us alone. When Israel experienced the holiness of God marked by thunders, smoking mountain, lightning, they feared Him and begged Moses to speak to them, instead. It had been three months since Israel had left Egypt in a supernatural and powerful way, when God expressed His love, His faithfulness through miracles and signs, when He walked ahead of them providing shelter from the sun and light for the night through a pillar of clouds and fire, when He opened the Red Sea and guided them through it in dry land and at the same time killing their enemies. But seemly, Israel lacked God’s holiness, and in their sinful condition, they acted like Adam and Eve – fearful.

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Let No One Deceive You

(II Thessalonians 2; I John 4:1-4)

Deceit comes to all some time and in some fashion. Its intent is to brain-wash the truth, in order to achieve its purpose of control. The main reason it will be able to ensnare the mind successfully is ignorance. Ignorance then partners with destruction when zeal is manifested. Deceit is like a spider’s web in its impressive design. It does not covey the purpose to kill in its beauty and intelligence. But it attracts the victim to its death serving as food for the deceiver. That’s the way Satan operates. YAHSHUA said this of him: The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they (the sheep) may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (John 10:10) There are many ways deceit leads to destruction. However, the most serious one is the deceit that leads one to hell. From the beginning of time, Satan used deceit to deviate man from the truth to believe lies he created, instead.

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For the Sake of the Holy Seed (Part 1)

(Genesis 4:25-26; 6:1-10; Ezra 9)

When Adam and Eve sinned, they made a choice to disobey YAHWEH to believe Satan’s lies. That was the sin of rebellion Satan imparted to them. From that time on, the sinful nature entered their souls, and they became slaves to it. In spite of it, YAHWEH gave them a promise of redemption. To the serpent, YAHWEH said, and I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her Offspring; He will bruise and tread your head underfoot, and you will lie in wait and bruise His heel (Gen. 3:15). Why is YAHWEH bringing the Holy Seed to the picture and for what purpose at that point in time? Who is Satan’s offspring and who is the woman’s offspring? How was that going to happen? Adam and Eve were childless at that time. We do not know how long had they been created before they sinned. One thing is for sure: YAHWEH had a plan to restore men to Himself one day. It was going to happen through the woman, independent from a man. Adam and Eve had two sons after this. Cain the first born, was a tiller of the ground. Abel, the second son was a keeper of sheep. Because Cain defiantly offered YAHWEH a sacrifice contrary to what he was supposed to and his prideful and hateful nature, causing him to kill his brother, he was not from whom the Holy Seed would have come.

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Blood and Water Flowed Out From His Side

(John 19:32-35)

What’s the meaning of blood and water flowing out from YAHSHUA’S side? Have you ever wondered why and the meaning behind it? The truth of the matter is that we never stop to wonder why and what’s the significance behind it; we go on with minimum knowledge, not perceiving how little we care to know the reason behind it, to understand the extent of YAHSHUA’S suffering on our behalf. I believe that knowledge, as a glass window, will make possible for our eyes of understanding to see clearly and to change the way we see Him in His sufferings, and in relation to blood and water flowing out from His side when He was pierced. There is much to consider in the case of blood and water being flown from His side that is very important in the physical and in the spiritual realm to all those who are called believers in YAHSHUA.

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Iniquity and Guilt

(Psalm 32:5; Proverbs 10: 29 Psalm 51:5; Exodus 34:7)

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, in sin my mother conceived me (Psalm 51:5). When we read the genealogy of YAHSHUA we see King David’s great-grandmother was the prostitute Rahab. If he knew that, we do not know. But we know that he acknowledged in Psalm 51 to have been born from a sinful ancestor. What is really the sin of iniquity and why it is so hard to deal with it? When the Lord descended in the cloud to stand with Moses on the Mount Sinai, He proclaimed His name by saying, The Lord! The Lord!, a God merciful and gracious slow to anger, and abundant in loving-kindness and truth, keeping mercy and loving-kindness for thousand, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but Who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children, to the third and fourth generation (Exodus 34:5-7). The sin of iniquity is rooted deeply in our veins. It is the thing with curses manifested in weakness of personality, and weakness of the body. We carry the curses of our ancestors to the third and fourth generation.

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What Man Is Made Of

(Genesis 2:7; John 9)

Then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath or spirit of life, and man became a living being (Gen. 2:7).

Man is not just clay formed from the dust of the earth, but he is water also, for it takes water for clay to be formed. God gathered the dust to form man in a perfect combination of clay chemistry. Because man is dust, minerals are part of him, too. In fact, he cannot survive without them. They are important to man, as they are to the constituents of soils. The Lord confirmed to him saying, “You are dust and to dust you will return.” The soil we step on, are buried in, the soil that is needed to germinate seeds for food, for construction of some sort is the same soil from where God formed man. But man would not have had life without breath having to be breathed into Him by God, the author of life itself. So man is dust, soul and life-his spirit within him. The reality of this truth is strong enough to humble man to his original state-dust. He can easily return to what he came from when his breath is taken away. The air that he breathes is but life given him by God.

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Lo-Debar- a Thing of Naught

Lo-debar was a place where history opened its pages through the Bible and showed its conditions- spiritual, and physical. This city existing even in the time of Joshua carries a negative prefix Lo, and debar meaning “word” or “thing.” It was there that Jonathan’s son’s nurse found refuge when she had to flee the palace at the news of King Saul’s death to protect Jonathan’s son from being killed. He was only five years old when his nurse took him up and fled; and in her haste, he fell and became lame (II Sam.4). She then fled to Lo-debar, where she found refuge in the house of Machir son of Ammiel at Lo-debar (II Sam. 9:4). While still alive, Jonathan made a friendship covenant with David saying if anything would happen to him, David would take care of his family. Jonathan knew that David, and not he was to take the throne of his father, consequential to the destruction of his family. His son was taken and hidden in a remote place, where only the outcasts from society, the unskilled and non-educated people lived. Lo-debar was nonetheless, a place of refuge. Mephibosheth son of Jonathan lived there all his life until he was sought for and rescued by King David for the sake of his friend Jonathan.

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